Mission Park Pavilions hold grand opening

Cyclist Vangie Moncayo, front, Zeek Garza, in yellow and Larry Duron leave Mission Park Pavilions at the renovated Mission County Park, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. The renovation to the 1949-built park cost $6.9 million with $1.75 coming from a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant. The 60-acre park has a capacity of 3,000 and includes what the county touts as the latest and greatest outdoor music venue

Photo By JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-News

Amador Osio participates in a Native American blessing ceremony during the official opening of Mission Park Pavilions at the renovated Mission County Park, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. The renovation to the 1949-built park cost $6.9 million with $1.75 coming from a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant. The 60-acre park has a capacity of 3,000 and includes what the county touts as the latest and greatest outdoor music venue.

Photo By JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-News

Michael Rodriguez, left, and Chris Byrd, of Finding Friday, set up in the new 968-capacity pavilion during the official opening of Mission Park Pavilions at the renovated Mission County Park, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. The renovation to the 1949-built park cost $6.9 million with $1.75 coming from a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant. The 60-acre park has a capacity of 3,000 and includes what the county touts as the latest and greatest outdoor music venue

Photo By JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-News

Valeria Gutierrez, 12, center, with Harlandale ISD Aguilas de Oro mariachi band warms up before the official opening of Mission Park Pavilions at the renovated Mission County Park, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013. The renovation to the 1949-built park cost $6.9 million with $1.75 coming from a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant. The 60-acre park has a capacity of 3,000 and includes what the county touts as the latest and greatest outdoor music venue

On Sunday, Mission County Park got a new name and some fancy new digs, including a state-of-the-art performance pavilion with an impressive view of the San Antonio River that officials hope will become a popular music venue.

After a Native American blessing and a mariachi performance, the park was officially christened Mission Park Pavilions Sunday, following the completion of renovations that started in February 2012.

The $6.9 million project includes a large covered performance pavilion with a capacity for about 900 people, renovation of a rotunda and a kitchen pavilion, black-top asphalt installation with brick pavers, new lighting and a new playground.

About 3,500 people can fit into the main park area outside of the new music pavilion.

Most of the project money came from the county capital projects fund, but it also included a $1.75 million grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Many people who attended Sunday's opening ceremony had some kind of tie to the park. Epifanio Hernandez grew up two blocks from Mission San Jose, which is next door to the park, and earlier generations of his family once lived in the mission. It was a tradition for the entire family to come to the park.

“This was our park,” Hernandez said. “This was our hangout.”

People have used Mission County Park for birthday parties, church festivals and large music festivals.

But excavations revealed evidence of people occupying the park site 5,000 years ago, said park architect Steve Tillotson.

“It was possibly always a picnic or party site,” Tillotson said.

Hernandez said many of the people that once used the park, including many of the families that made their homes in the area for generations, have left.

He participated in the morning's Native American blessing, not just to celebrate what was new about the park but to urge the old families to come back.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, fresh off the Saturday grand opening of BiblioTech, the country's first all-digital library, said Mission Park Pavilions' renovation is part of a plan to increase the number of live music venues in San Antonio.

“It's already getting booked a lot,” he said.

Wolff envisions a large musical festival area that includes Mission Park Pavilions and Padre Park next door.

Both face the Mission Reach, the newly redeveloped San Antonio River.

The last leg of the river under renovation will open in October

Before the park closed for the renovations, about 350,000 people used it every year, making it one of the most-visited county parks, said Betty Bueché, the county's director of facilities and parks.

The renovated park was originally scheduled to open May 25, but record-breaking rainfall and devastating floods on the day it was to open forced the county to cancel the event.

The grand opening also had to be pushed back because the heavy rains washed away soil along VFW Boulevard that leads up to the park and damaged a water valve, which needed repair, Bueché said.

In addition, county officials wanted to reopen the park around Deiz y Seis, Mexico's Independence Day.